Several not-for-profit organizations (including but not limited to KidsandCars.org, SafeKids.org, and SaferCar.gov) have been advocating for the development of child safety systems that could potentially save the life a child that was left behind in the vehicle by a parent or caregiver by accident or neglect.
Child death can occur as a result of hyperthermia, heat stress, and/or heat stroke, dehydration or other extreme heat/cold temperature related illnesses resulting from the child being left unattended in vehicles. Since 1998, there have been at least six hundred thirty-six (636) documented cases of child deaths by heatstroke as a result of being left in vehicles. The average number of child vehicular heat stroke deaths per year (since 1998) is thirty-seven (37), one every nine (9) days. In 2014, there were thirty (30) child vehicular heat stroke deaths. Of the six hundred thirty-six (636) documented cased, fifty-three percent (53%) occurred as a result of the parent or caregiver simply forgetting that the child was in the backseat of the vehicle, and then inadvertently leaving and locking the vehicle with the child remaining in the car. Another thirty percent (30%) were a result of children playing and finding their way into unattended hot vehicles and not being able to get out. Astoundingly, another seventeen percent (17%) were due to the parent or caregiver intentionally leaving the child behind, even for just a short period of time, not realizing the severity of their intentions.
Extreme hot/cold conditions cannot only affect children but also pets left behind in vehicles. Extreme temperature changes inside the vehicle can occur over a short period of time, and have life-threatening effects on children or pets left behind in the vehicle. During normal daytime air temperatures (70-90° Fahrenheit) vehicle interior air temperatures can rapidly rise by as much as twenty degrees)(20° (90-110° Fahrenheit) in just the first ten (10) minutes. This rapid change in temperature can have detrimental effects on children and pets that are left behind in the vehicle for even just a short period of time, and can lead to death if they are not removed from the extreme temperatures that increase with each minute.
As global temperatures continue to rise, and extreme hot/cold temperature conditions more readily occur year over year, it is imperative that a solution to this alarming and unnecessary loss of life be developed to prevent and/or mitigate its likelihood.
For reasons described above, there is a need to invent and develop a system for identifying when a person, such as a child, a handicapped individual, a special needs individual, an elderly person, and the like; and/or an animal, such as a pet dog, a pet cat, and the like is left behind in a vehicle in extreme environmental conditions for all cases in which such conditions may develop and takes action to prevent and/or mitigate the likelihood of death therefrom.